Miss Kansas denounces her attacker in public

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A newly released video of Miss Kansas calling out her domestic violence attacker from the stage on the night of her crowning is sparking a flurry of support on social media.

Alexis Smith, who works nights as a cardiothoracic intensive care nurse in Wichita, was crowned Miss Kansas on June 8 but only posted video of her onstage comments last week on the platform now known as X. Her comments resonated with thousands of people, in part because she called out her own attacker from the stage while she said the attacker was sitting in the audience.

The video Smith posted on July 16 has been viewed more than 60,000 times and generated a wave of press coverage.

“My vision as the next Miss Kansas is to eliminate unhealthy and abusive relationships,” Smith said during the pageant interview last month. “Actually, some of you in this audience have seen me get very emotional because my abuser is here today. But that’s not going to stop me from being on that Miss Kansas stage and representing the next Miss Kansas.”

Smith has only just begun her reign and has begun to voice her concerns about the issue in interviews and social media posts. Her bold statement against domestic violence and her courage in speaking out has been praised online by dozens of people, with her video being shared multiple times.

The beauty queen cares deeply about domestic violence issues because not only has she been a victim of it, but many other women in her family have been as well, she said.

“My family, every woman in my family, has been affected by domestic violence,” she said in an interview with Wichita TV station KSN. “When I was 14, I entered into my first relationship, but it was also an abusive relationship that I was in until about 2018, 2019. It’s something that I still deal with and deal with today.”

Smith said she even moved to Texas for a few years after ending her relationship. She returned to Wichita to study nursing at Newman University.